Housing and homelessness

Working in this area will involve assessing housing needs, finding solutions, offering advice and working to prevent homelessness. It is important to realise that a home is more than just a roof. The people you work with will often have other problems to cope with such as mental health issues, drug abuse, a criminal record or problems with child care. People who have inadequate housing are also a risk to the economy as they are often unemployed and can be involved in street crime, assessing and meeting their needs can therefore contribute to society as a whole and to the economic wellbeing of the area.

Typical cases will involve people who have been made homeless due to a family or relationship breakdown, because they are unemployed or on a low income, or because they have been evicted from their family home. Other people may be referred because they lack a suitable home due to a medical condition for example. The work you will do will therefore depend on the case and the underlying causes of that person’s homelessness or housing need. Social workers work closely with community care services and other organisations where necessary (such as specialist debt agencies for example) to resolve issues and help people find suitable housing.

A greater emphasis is now being placed on empowering people to make choices, which will help them to solve their housing crisis. A new scheme called ‘choice-based lettings’ offers people a way of registering their interest in a property so that they can actively choose where they would prefer to live. Councils are also opening estate agent style shops to take the stigma away from housing issues and encourage people to ask for help.

Shoptalk

Working in this area of service you will often hear the word ‘vulnerability’, a term that is used to assess a person’s housing needs. The council, for example, would not usually offer a home to a single person unless they were ‘vulnerable’ – perhaps because of their age.

‘Priority need’ is another concept you will need to get to grips with and is a term laid down by the government to rate those looking for housing. An expectant mother would have a higher priority than a single person but be aware that it can sometimes be difficult to fit people into these categories.

Skills required

To work in this area you will need to have compassion and empathy. The working environment can be quite stressful, so you will need to be able to work in a team and support your colleagues. You will need to be realistic about the help you can offer but being imaginative and able to think outside the box can really help to solve problems. There will be reports and letters to write so good written skills are important, as are strong oral communication skills and the ability to listen when dealing with the public.

Starting out

New starters will need to learn the law relating to housing issues as well as their council’s own policies and protocols. You will often be working with customers but usually after an induction process and with supervision from an experienced colleague. There is training in place but you will learn a lot from doing the job. The most important thing to remember is that you are part of a team and other members of that team will be there to support you.

In brief

• Best bits
  Being able to really achieve something and make a positive difference to a person’s life.
• Worst bits 
  The lack of affordable houses for people with serious housing needs.
• Don’t bother if...
  ...you aren’t interested in people or society as a whole.
  ...you aren’t concerned about economic issues – this won’t be the area for you.